HISTORY

The Sir Charles Hayward Library, which is located adjacent to the Rand Memorial Hospital and opposite The Grand Bahama Port Authority in Freeport, Grand Bahama, was established in the 1960s by a group of residents interested in establishing a public library. The Library began operations in a small room in the Savoy Building courtesy of the Grand Bahama Port Authority. The small group of organizers, which included teacher and designated librarian Nora Brown, operated the Library on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm. In November, 1963, the first subscription was issued by Eileen McGuire, an early library volunteer to Mrs. Julian O’Reilley.

The library began operations with 2 crates of books supplied by the British Council, which offered aide to British colonies, gratis. Donations came from pioneer Sir Jack Hayward of the Grand Bahama Port Authority and Ernie Skogg, a local businessman who took the plight of the fledgling library to the Jaycee Club of North Miami, which resulted in the addition of 1,200 books to the collection. Other pioneer organizers included Lila Gonsalves, wife of Keith, Gonzalves, the then general manager of the Grand Bahama Port Authority; Lucita Craig, wife of one of the managers of the Freeport Oil Company Limited; Yaga Tyminska, wife of the Harbour Master; and, Nadine Catren, a long-time volunteer.

The Library received invaluable support from James and Dorothy Rand. In the 1940s, James Rand had built up a fortune with his development and promotion of the dial telephone and airplane braking system. He had founded the Colonial Research Institute in Panama, but after retiring in Freeport in 1960, decided to establish a similar institute in his adopted city of . A graduate of the Harvard Medical University, Rand, built a Colonial Research Institute besides the hospital which still bears his name, equipped with a reference library. When the Freeport branch of the CRI failed, Dorothy Rand suggested moving the small public library into one wing of the facility and leaving the other for the medical reference library. In July, 1966, the Library was relocated to space provided by the John Harvard Medical Library, and renamed the John Harvard Lending Library.

In 1983, Mrs. Rand negotiated with the Grand Bahama Port Authority to have that organization assume full responsibility for the Library. Later that same year, Shandra Tuccio, the late Dorothy Rand’s daughter, handed over the responsibility for the library to Sir Jack and the Grand Bahama Port Authority. It was appropriately suggested that the Library be renamed The Sir Charles Hayward Library after one of its most ardent patrons. Later that year, the negotiated transfer of responsibilities was completed under the direction of Sir Jack Hayward in whose father’s name the Library is now called. In 1994, the auditorium section of the building was converted into what is currently the Children’s Library. Elaine Talma, a retired professional librarian, offered her services to train a cadre of volunteers. In 1996, the Ohio-based Norwalk Library answered a wish-list placed in Ohio newspapers by Elaina Talma and subsequently adopted the Library and provided additional resource materials, professional assistance and financial aid. Today, there are approximately 50,000 books in the library’s collection of which 9000 are paperbacks.   Staff and volunteers have impressively logged about 70 per cent of the collection into the newly purchased electronic database for easy reference. The collection is in a continual state of growth with donations and new monthly book purchases.

A pillar of the community, The Sir Charles Hayward Library was incorporated as a non-profit company on December 13, 2011. A Board of Directors was appointed on July 16, 2013, and both the Adult Lending Library and the Children’s Library began operating as a non-profit company at that time.

 

Partners

  • Grand Bahama Port Authority, The

  • ABC Construction

  • BuckEye Bahamas Ltd.

  • Grand Bahama Power Company Ltd.

  • Grand Bahama Shipyard

  • Polymers International

  • PharmaChem Technologies

  • StatOiL Limited

  • U.S. Embassy, The

DONoRS

  • AMC Foods

  • Bradford Marine

  • Cable Bahamas

  • Freeport Oil Company

  • Government of The Bahamas

  • Kelly’s FPO Limited

  • Lyford Cay Foundation

  • Templeton Foundation

  • Royal Star Assurance

  • Sawyer’s Fresh Food Market

  • University of the Bahamas, The

mission statement

The mission of the Sir Charles Hayward Library is to preserve the past and transmit the knowledge, history and multicultural riches of Grand Bahama, The Bahamas and global communities using a variety of media and art forms. 

“Educate, Preserve, Innovate, Empower”
— core values
 

Questions?